The Most Flavorful Izakaya in Irvine

This is one of those hole in the wall places most locals know about and is a hidden gem. This hole in the wall family owned business is tucked away literally in a corner of a random Stater Bro's strip mall behind the liquor store. Its SUPER tiny and probably less than 40 people total capacity like you're really in a stand in Okinawa! Make sure to join the yelp wait list or you be ready to wait a few hours if you even can get it! They are typically always fully booked every night and they strictly enforce an hour per party because of the long queue. The auntie owners are super fun here and make you feel right at home too! The interior is decorated with all sorts of authentic Japanese pop culture so you totally feel like you're in Japan. They have changed the menu and simplified it over the many years we've been visiting. They do have Okinawa Kirin on tap or a bunch of japanese shochu cocktails available too. The menu itself has a variety of either finger food tapas style items, or a few set bento style but the menu is designed for sharing! This is a place to chill and have a good time for a casual date night or chilling with your friends. The absolutely must get items include the soft shell crab and corn tempura! The Japanese food here is very authentic Okinawan cuisine and not overly salty/seasoned and absolutely NOT fusion so be aware it may not be to everyone's taste especially very Americanized taste buds. We absolutely will continue to support this gem in our local community as they do have some season menu changes from time to time!

Ambience: clean, nice musicService: excellent - our server constantly checked on us. Food: 2 out of 5. Pork katsu - pork was quite dry and seemed like they used old oil. But lunch bento overall is good for the price.

Sagami has some great Japanese dishes. Not just your standard run-of-the-mill stuff. I come here at least once a month and have tried a fair number of items off their menu. I've enjoyed everything so far. The food is always good but make a reservation or come early because the restaurant is cozy/small and there can be quite a wait.

We came on a Friday evening and the restaurant was at 20% capacity so we got seated right away. ETCetera is located in a small street mall so I could see parking an issue during prime time hours. The restaurant has an initimate setting and so I appreciated the privacy we got when dining here. Everything we ordered was amazingly fresh and the rolls were full of flavor! I would definitely come back to check out their other menu items.

Listen up, people. This is my family's SPOT. 9 times out of 10, you'll find us in the back, munching on sushi, or you'll hear my dad practically yelling across the room. We LOVE Huntington Ramen and to be honest, this review should've been made like 5 years ago. Chef Kohei is super sweet, and the entire staff always makes us feel right at home. We've become regulars because of how welcoming everyone is and, of course, how fresh the fish is. The owner, who's from Japan, brings an authentic, high-quality menu to the restaurant that keeps us coming back.Now, let's talk about our favorites:For starters, we can't go without the garlic edamame and takoyaki. DIVINE. My dad is all about the soft shell crab, and the agedashi tofu is a must-try. When we're feeling fancy, we always get the garlic bluefin tataki.As for the bigger dishes, if you're into rolls, our go-tos are the Mr. Craving, Spider Roll, Divine Lava, and Tiger Roll. We always get a bunch of nigiri, too. The fish-to-rice ratio is spot on, and the quality is top-notch. Our usual order includes yellowtail, salmon, unagi, uni, bluefin, chu toro, and sometimes yellowtail belly and salmon belly.My mom's a big fan of the Real Tan Tan ramen, but every now and then the chef makes mazemen, which is a creamy, flavorful dream with delicious pork. We always finish up with a scoop of their ice cream, which is honestly the best way to cap the meal.100000/10 recommend. I'd love to gatekeep this place, but let's be real--most people don't know what good sushi is, so let me put you on!!!

It was a cold evening so udon soup sounded like a delicious pick. I was in the area so I decided to try OkiDoki by Meiji. I hear that their chef was technically trained in Japan for over 30 years and they import their flour from Japan to maintain the standards. While reviewing the menu, I didn't feel like any one item on its' own so I had to order multiple items and do add ons to get everything I wanted. I ordered the Kitsune Udon ($14.25) and I added a Poached Egg ($2). And I added the Assorted Tempura ($12). The udon noodle itself has a great texture and chewiness. It was the broth that I wasn't too impressed with. Maybe a tad bland. The egg was much needed and improved the soup a lot. To their credit it was perfectly poached and when it popped, the color was vibrant like a really quality Pasteur organic egg. The tempura had a decent assortment and I definitely didn't need all of that but the crunch was needed to balance my meal. Like it but not that in love with it. Maybe I'll try a different flavor in the future to see if the broth on a different bowl tastes better. But I wouldn't really go out of my way for it.

I genuinely cannot express how happy I am to have stumbled upon this new AYCE Sushi spot. I had heard of their other locations before, but never had a chance to actually go to one until I was in the area and noticed that this one had opened up. The quality of the sushi was great for an AYCE sushi spot, and the rice to fish ratio was perfect in my opinion. The fish was nice and tasted fresh, from their salmon to their yellowtail. I love that they have other options as well in addition to their sushi, such as ramen, udon, or hand rolls. Generally, when a sushi spot tries to do too much all at once, they fall short in certain areas, but X-Fish Izakaya is not one of those restaurants. While their ramen was average at best, the rest of their options definitely make up for it. They do have a cooldown time for ordering, but we did not notice this too much, as we were busy eating while the timer ran down and by the time we finished, we were able to order more immediately!

This small restaurant located in a strip mall is serving up some tasty udon. They use Yelp Wait List which you'll need to take advantage of if you're coming during prime dinner time. We had a 30 minute wait on a Tuesday but toward the end of our meal there were open tables. We were seated in time for Happy Hour which runs until 7pm and enjoyed a small plate of the juicy fried chicken and a beer for $9.50. I ordered the beef Shabu Shabu udon and not only was it filling but had a delicious broth and tender udon.